News

When did you get involved with Making It Better? I originally got involved with Making It Better in 2016 during Read Aloud Month and jumped on the opportunity to get involved with Lunch Bunch when my colleagues approached me about it lat...

Did you know that research indicates the road to incarceration begins as early as kindergarten, linking reading difficulties with serious behavior problems most commonly seen in at-risk youth? Or that children in low-income families star...

When did you get involved with Making It Better? I got involved with Making It Better in the Fall of 2017 as a Lunch Bunch mentor. How did you get involved? Making It Better and the organization I work for, Youth Development Center (YDC)...

When and how did you get involved with Making It Better? In 2016, I was sitting with a friend watching our boys play baseball, and she was telling me all about her wonderful job with a nonprofit organization called Making It Better. She...

When did you get involved with Making It Better? I was lucky enough to have been introduced to Making It Better over 10 years ago! How did you get involved? I was teaching at Walnut Bend Elementary and was asked if Making It Better cou...

When did you get involved with Making It Better? I began volunteering at Making It Better during the 2017-18 school year. How did you get involved? I was invited by my friends Cindy Olds and Carol Wiggins to one of the Making It Bett...

SEPTEMBER 29 @ 8:30 PM – 11:30 PM Making It Better Young Professionals will host Mixers with Magnums, their 2nd annual fundraising event held in conjunction with our Magnums Make a Difference fundraising gala. The event will ...

Swimming, kayaking, fishing, water zip lines, blobs, and more! What kid wouldn’t have fun at a place that offers these activities? For the 5th summer in a row, staff member Vicki Townsend took five of our Steps 2 Success program studen...

Which year did you begin your involvement with Making It Better? I started in the Fall of 2016. How did you get involved? I was discussing the program with a friend that was working for Making It Better. I first volunteered at a Family L...

Our Parent Partnership programs continued through April to engage and connect parents and children in the communities of the schools we serve. We hosted four Family Literacy Nights this school year., and thanks to the support of man...

How did you get involved with Making It Better? A number of my friends including Linda McSwain, Janette Smith, and Karen Swerdlow, invited me to the Guild Luncheon in 2014. When did you join the Guild? I considered joining the Guild for ...

Making It Better is thrilled to bring you Magnums Make A Difference, our 10th annual unique wine event that will bring wine lovers together to help us transform lives through literacy. The event will take place on Saturday, September 2...

When kids don’t read over the summer, they fall behind. WAY behind! Without continued learning over the summer, your child is at risk of being as much as three grade levels behind their classmates by the end of 5th grade. Summer readi...

By Kimberly Suckow May 7, 2018 Summer is almost here, and for many, this will be a time for relaxation and vacations. But did you know that students can lose two months or more of achievement gains made during the school year if th...

With her positive attitude and eagerness to always lend a hand, Sydney Emerson has made a significant impact over the years on the kids and families we serve. She is a Making It Better Young Professionals (MIBYP) member who volunteers at...

We join our fellow non-profit literacy friends in Houston in celebrating our amazing former First Lady for a life incredibly well-lived. What a blessing it is to Houston that she and former President George H. W. Bush have called Houston...

Which year did you begin your involvement with Making It Better? In 2013 when I assisted in the Reading Intervention program with a Kindergarten group at Walnut Bend. How did you get involved? I’ve known Jacque Daughtry for year...

During Balck History Month, Making It Better Executive Director, Jacque Daughtry, along with several of our program students, were invited to be guests on the CW39 Maggie in the Mornings show with Maggie Flecknoe. To see the broadcast,...

Making It Better Executive Director, Jacque Daughtry, had the privilege of speaking with Mike Tenney about the literacy crisis in Houston and what we are doing to help combat the problem. Watch the full interview HERE....

Since 2016, Michael Pulvino has impacted our organization in various capacities such as mentoring boys, renovating our after-school program facility, and generously giving support to our fundraising efforts. With his calm, positive dem...

Thank you so much for having our kids’ backs and supporting our Harvey relief efforts! One week post-Harvey, we began to communicate with administrators at the Houston ISD campuses we serve and the requests for assistance for their stud...

With her ability to see the vision of Making It Better and her compassion for providing an opportunity for children to succeed, Emma Kirchhofer is someone who we find to be invaluable to our organization. Emma’s involvement influences ...

Executive Director, Jacque Daughtry, was recently featured in an issue of the Houston Business Journal discussing Houston’s future workforce and its ties to literacy. To read the full article, please click here....

Dear Friends, As we near the end of our 10th year of service, we want to honor the many foundations who have helped sustain us these past 10 years. Not only do they provide monetary support but many of these dedicated foundation director...

We’re so excited to announce that Making It Better’s new Ready, Set, Read bus is here! Now we’re on a mission to transform this bus into a mobile classroom, giving access to critical pre-reading programming to little ones and their...

Dr. Joseph Gugenheim is a recently retired orthopedic surgeon who spends much of his time giving back to the community for organizations such as Star of Hope (until September 2017), his medical school alumni association and Making It B...

Twenty-eight young professionals attended the Making It Better Young Professionals 1st Annual Mixers with Magnums held in concert with Magnums Makes a Difference. This next generation of philanthropists got in on the action with a nigh...

Two hundred and forty-one people joined Emcee and KTRKs Gina Gaston at the Ballroom at Bayou Place on Saturday, November 4th to enjoy fine dining from Masraff’s, a great selection of wine and most importantly, to raise more than $287,...

Programs are in full swing and we are excited!! Thanks to your support, we are serving 332 students in our Reading Intervention program in 9 HISD elementary schools throughout Houston, including Ashford, Bruce, MacGregor, Mark White, Pin...

By: Jacque Daughtry In the Houston area, much of our normal life such as work, school, traffic patterns, church, a place to come home to… have been interrupted by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. It has been a heartbreaking and roug...

On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, AnnaLee and Andy Waite made a very generous donation of $25,000 to Making It Better. This is the first major donation that will fund our Adopt-a-School program, which challenges individuals and other or...

Every Thursday, Beth McGee visits Walnut Bend Elementary to spend 30 minutes during lunch period guiding four elementary students through decision making and developing healthy relationships. Going into her third year as a mentor, Beth h...

This past Friday, Making It Better attended Bruce Elementary’s “Back to School Bash” to help prepare students for the new school year. With a portion of the donations received through our We’ve Got Your Back campaign, we were able to dis...

First and foremost, we hope that you and yours are safe and dry, have electricity and are being lifted up by the amazing acts of kindness and generosity being displayed in our beloved city/state. As part of the Making It Better family, w...

Dear Friends, It is with incredible gratitude mixed with sadness that I announce a major change in our staff. June 1st will be Kelly Bukolt’s last day with Making It Better. Kelly has dedicated herself to Making It Better – our child...

I am often asked what makes Making It Better successful and different from all the rest. Without hesitation I reply, “Our employees are absolutely the best!” There is not one employee who does not put their heart and soul into every ta...

Throughout the month of March we celebrated Read Aloud Month at 9 HISD schools with 774 1st and 2nd grade students. Read Aloud Month is a national campaign focused on spending just 15 minutes a day reading to or with a child, helping t...

Thanks to the 300+ attendees who joined us at our 4th Annual Guild Luncheon and had the pleasure of hearing from Key Note Speaker, Juliet Stipeche, Education Director, City of Houston. Together we raised over $75,000 for the children and...

We are so grateful to our dedicated young professionals, a diverse group of individuals heeding the call to make a difference. This group serves together through volunteer activities and fundraising events. Click HERE to learn more about...

We are so grateful to the 2,200 dedicated donors who over the last 10 years have donated almost $5,000,000, allowing us to serve over 10,000 kids in 13 schools and 12 apartment complexes! As First Lady Barbara Bush once said, “If you he...

Executive Director, Jacque Daughtry, had the privilege of kicking off our 10 Year Anniversary on KPRC Channel 2 with reporter, Anoushah Rasta. Click here or on the photo below to watch the interview. ...

We are excited to unveil our 10 Year Anniversary Expansion Campaign – an attempt to raise $100,000 over and above our annual budget in order to poise ourselves for the expansion of services to more students over the next 2-3 years. The f...

2017 is here and we are off to an exciting start! This year marks our 10 year anniversary and we will be celebrating our birthday all year long! An amazing 2200 donors have raised almost $5,000,000 and served 10,000 kids attendi...

Making It Better celebrated 9 years of providing quality support services to at-risk children in Houston with its 9th annual signature fundraising event, Magnums Make a Difference, on Saturday, October 15th, raising a record $30...

In early October, fifty employees of Freudenberg Oil & Gas Technologies volunteered their time to help create a better working and learning space for our Steps 2 Success site at Belmont Place Apartments. One hundred and eighteen hours we...

Did you know that kids can lose two months or more of skills if they stop reading over the summer? It’s called the “Summer Slide”. Beginning this week, we will be providing a Summer Program for up to 32 kids entering 1st through 5th ...

In April we completed our 23 week program with great results and smiling faces, serving almost 300 K-2 students in 8 HISD elementary schools. All students started the school year 1 – 2 Reading Grade Levels below their actual grade level...

Our Steps 2 Success program students had a very busy and exciting semester! Not only did they do a lot of reading and related activities, but they also learned how to start and operate their own businesses – lemonade stands! The stud...

Trained volunteers continued to give their time each week to support the social and emotional well-being of students in the Lunch Bunch program. Through the use of books, they covered topics in the spring including bullying, communicatio...

Children and parents residing at Belmont Place Apartments continued to attend our weekly Ready, Set, Read! program with enthusiasm. Parents, as well as our volunteer facilitators, observed tremendous growth in the children’s excitement...

Our Parent Partnership programs continued through April to engage and connect parents and children in the communities of the schools we serve. We hosted two additional Family Literacy Nights at Clayton Homes in 5th Ward, and Coral Club ...

Students in our Steps 2 Success program have been doing a lot of reading while learning many important life skills. But that’s not all! Students were also able to take several field trips last semester including a local fire departm...